Beginnings  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  New  Haven. 


0 
0 

0; 
1    I 


THE   BEGINNINGS   OF    THE   EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH  IN  NEW  HAVEN 


DELIVERED  IN 


TRINITY   CHURCH,    NEW    HAVEN 


DECEMBER  30,  1894 


BY  THE   RECTOR 


EDWIN   HARWOOD,   D.D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  WARDENS  AND  VESTRY 


DISCOURSE. 


ABOUT  the  year  1 750,  if  a  man  of  the  world, — 
or,  as  he  would  have  been  called  in  those  days,  a 
man  of  wit  and  fashion, — had  seen  the  little  town 
of  New  Haven,  and  known  anything  of  the  tastes 
and  the  pursuits  of  its  people,  he  would  have 
described  it  as  a  well  planned  but  thinly  settled 
country  village,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were 
devoted  to  saving  their  own  souls,  to  money  mak- 
ing, and  to  perpetual  quarrelling  with  each  other  on 
topics  of  theological  interest. 

The  town  was  then  a  little  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  old  ;  the  original  settlement  and  gov- 
ernment of  the  little  colony  were  very  extraor- 
dinary. The  colonists  proposed  to  found  here, 
by  the  waters  of  Long  Island  Sound,  a  state 
which  should  own  allegiance  neither  to  king  nor 
foreign  potentate  of  any  description,  and  which 
should  be  governed  solely  by  the  church  which 
they  had  proceeded  to  organize.*  They  proposed 
to  establish  a  genuine  civitas  Dei,  the  laws  and  the 
spirit  of  which  should  be  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  laws  and  the  spirit  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Mr. 

*  Not  perhaps  bf  the  organization  as  such,  but  by  the  ideas  and  prin- 
ciples which  governed  it. 


—4— 

Levermore,  in  his  "  Republic  of  New  Haven,"  has 
clearly  stated  the  similarity  and  almost  identity  of 
views  between  the  great  Richard  Hooker  and  John 
Davenport,  the  leader  of  the  colony,  on  the  rela- 
tions of  the  church  and  the  state.  But  the  mag- 
nificent splendor  of  Hooker  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  obscure,  beclouded  english  of  Mr.  Davenport 
on  the  other,  are  apt  to  make  readers  inattentive  to 
this  interesting  fact.  Hooker  applied  his  principles 
in  one  way,  and  the  leaders  of  the  New  Haven 
colony  in  another.  In  the  case  of  Hooker,  the  state 
dominated  the  church  ;  in  the  case  of  the  New 
Haven  colonists,  the  church  was  to  dominate  the 
state.  The  colonists  had  no  doubt  they  were  right, 
nor  had  they  any  doubt  that  all  people  who  differed 
from  them  were  wrong.  But  the  conception,  strik- 
ing as  it  may  have  been,  proved  a  complete  failure. 
They  were  soon  awakened  from  their  dream  of 
independence  by  the  fact  that  the  Dutch,  at  New 
Amsterdam,  were  on  one  side  of  them,  and  Indians 
and  Englishmen  who  might  become  unfriendly,  were 
on  the  other.  Their  mercantile  instincts,  like  the 
mercantile  instincts  of  the  English  race,  were  strong. 
They  soon  embarked  in  commercial  enterprises,  or 
in  trading  enterprises,  which  were  largely  unsuc- 
cessful, and  the  spirits  of  the  people,  though  not 
broken,  were  very  speedily  sobered,  and  they  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  might  as  well  be  col- 


K 

onists  relying  upon  the  strength  of  the  mother 
country  which  they  had  left  behind  them. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  dwell  upon  the 
political  beginnings  of  the  town  of  New  Haven. 
I  simply  seek  to  refresh  your  memory  with  these  few 
facts,  and  must  now  proceed  to  consider  the  state 
of  things  after  three  generations  had  passed  away. 
The  zeal  of  the  first  settlers  had  abated.  There 
was,  of  course,  a  new  generation  with  a  lessened 
tension,  with  church  notions  somewhat  modified  in 
respect  of  discipline,  and  the  religious  interests  of 
the  people  were  somewhat  subdued,  and  there  was 
just  the  torpor,  moral  and  spiritual,  which  inevita- 
bly follows  in  the  wake  of  what  is  known  as  a  dead 
orthodoxy.  The  morals  of  the  people  had  dete- 
riorated. ,  Their  life  was  sombre,  and  I  should  think, 
sad.  The  ministers  and  magistrates  were  occasion- 
ally troubled  over  the  state  of  things,  but,  neverthe- 
less, they  would  have  gone  on  still  in  their  old  way, 
had  not  a  new  spirit  made  itself  manifest,  which 
convulsed  all  the  settlements  of  the  New  England 
colonies. 

This  convulsion  was  known  as  the  great  awaken- 
ing. People  were  alarmed  for  their  salvation  ;  they 
deplored  their  sins  and  the  sins  of  their  children  and 
of  their  parents ;  they  besought  almighty  God  to 
keep  back  his  hand  and  not  to  smite  nor  slay  ;  the 
one  subject  thought  of  was  religion  ;  strange  men 


— 6— 

made  strange  speeches ;  the  noise  and  babble  of 
public  worship  were  often  most  bewildering,  and 
for  many  years  all  Connecticut  was  torn,  partly,  by 
fear,  and  inspired,  partly,  by  the  hope  of  the  speedy 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  glory. 

Great  relaxation  of  morals  followed  this  revival, 
and  it  would  seem  as  if  some  kind  of  moral  paraly- 
sis were  settling  down  upon  a  portion  of  the  com- 
munity. Now  it  was  at  this  time  (it  is  well  to 
remember  the  dates  in  a  general  way,  1740-1750) 
that  the  church  at  New  Haven  suffered  a  serious 
schism.  The  magistrates,  the  college  and  the 
pastor  had  been  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
revival.  The  pastor  was  the  Rev.  Joseph  Noyes, 
who  was  said  to  be  gifted  in  prayer  but  dull  as  a 
preacher.  He  could  not  satisfy,  or  did  not  satisfy, 
that  portion  of  the  congregation  which  had  felt  the 
influence  of  the  revival,  and  the  consequence  was 
that  a  movement  was  made  to  bring  about  his  with- 
drawal, or,  in  the  event  of  its  failure,  to  establish  a 
new  congregation.  The  attitude  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Noyes  is  stated  thus  by  Dr.  Trumbull  in  his  History 
of  Connecticut : 

"  Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  religious 
awakening,  in  Connecticut  and  New  England,  there 
arose  a  great  uneasiness  and  dissatisfaction,  in  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  first  church  congregation 
in  New  Haven,  under  the  preachings  and  adminis- 
trations of  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes. 


n 

Though  he  had  the  gift  of  prayer  and  was  edifying 
in  that  part  of  worship,  yet  he  was  unanimating  and 
unpopular  in  his  preaching.  His  language  was 
vulgar,  and  his  zealous  calvinistic  hearers  did  not 
consider  him  as  so  plainly  and  faithfully  preaching 
the  doctrines  of  human  depravity,  of  regeneration 
by  the  supernatural  influences  of  the  divine  Spirit, 
and  of  its  absolute  necessity  that  men  might  be 
saved  ;  of  effectual  calling  and  justification  by  faith 
only,  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel  ought  by  all  means 
to  do.  They  did  not  conceive  him  as  making 
proper  distinctions  between  true  and  false  religion, 
and  preaching  in  such  a  manner  as  had  a  tendency 
to  show  to  hypocrites  and  secure  sinners,  their 
danger  and  misery.  From  the  manner  of  his 
preaching,  especially  on  sacramental  occasions,  sus- 
picions arose,  that  he  did  not  hold  the  real  divinity 
of  the  Saviour.  Besides,  he  appeared  wholly 
unfriendly  to  the  religious  awakening  and  con- 
cern in  the  country,  and  to  the  zealous  and  experi- 
mental preachers  by  whom  it  was  promoted.  He 
excluded  them  from  his  pulpit,  and  openly 
approved  of  the  persecuting  laws  and  measures 
of  the  civil  authority  of  that  day.  These  were  all 
matters  of  grievance  to  them.  They  could  not 
hear  such  preaching  at  home  as  they  desired,  nor 
could  they  go  abroad  without  giving  offence.  After 
repeated  conversations  with  Mr.  Noyes  on  their 
grievances,  and  much  pains  to  obtain  satisfaction, 
they  could  obtain  none  either  in  private  conversa- 
tion nor  by  his  preaching  in  public.  They  drew 
articles  of  charge  or  grievance  and  presented  them 
to  Mr.  Noyes,  desiring  that  they  might  be  com- 
municated to  the  church  and  society,  and  solicited 
a  mutual  council,  to  hear  and  give  advice  in  their 
difficulties.  But  instead  of  this,  their  grievances 
were  greatly  increased  by  Mr.  Noyes'  leading  his 


church  to  vote  on  the  Saybrook  platform,  and  at 
the  same  time  excluding  some  from  the  privilege 
of  voting  in  the  affair.  In  these  circumstances,  and 
as  they  could  not  obtain  a  mutual  council,  nor  any 
redress  of  their  grievances,  they  took  benefit  of  the 
act  of  toleration,  and  separated  from  the  worship 
and  ordinances  in  the  first  church,  to  which  they 
originally  belonged,  and  set  up  a  distinct  worship 
by  themselves.  They  professed  their  desires,  how- 
ever, to  have  their  grievances  heard  by  a  mutual 
council ;  but  Mr.  Noyes  would  not  consent. 
Therefore,  soon  after  their  separation,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  call  a  council  of  their  own.  It  consisted 
of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Samuel  Cooke,  John  Graham, 
Elisha  Kent  and  Joseph  Bellamy.  They  con- 
vened at  New  Haven,  on  the  5th  of  May,  1742. 
After  a  full  hearing  of  the  aggrieved  brethren,  they 
came  to  the  following  resolution,  in  effect,  That 
the  first  church  in  New  Haven  were,  by  their  own 
religious  and  solemn  profession  and  confederation, 
a  particular  church  of  Christ,  vested  with  all  powers 
necessary  for  their  own  confirmation,  government 
and  edification,  long  before,  until  and  at  the  time  of 
the  Synod  at  Saybrook,  in  1703,  and  consequently 
were  not  dependent  on  it,  nor  anything  consequent 
thereon."* 

According  to  Dr.  Munger,  in  his  very  interesting 
historical  discourse  : 

"  The  first  recorded  movement  toward  the  forma- 
tion of  this  society  was  the  presentation  of  a 
petition,  signed  by  thirty-eight  persons,  to  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  First  Society,  December 
28th,  1741,  asking  leave  for  the  signers  to  go  off 
and  form  a  society  by  themselves,  for  the  reason 

*See  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut,  vol.  2,  pp.  340,  341. 


— 9— 

assigned,  that  they  had  found  by  long  and  sorrow- 
ful experience  that  the  preaching  and  conduct  of 
Mr.  Noyes  was  unprofitable  to  them,  and  they  sus- 
pected he  differed  from  them  in  some  points  of 
faith.  At  that  period  the  pastor  was  settled  for 
life.  The  society  was  bound  to  give  him  a  com- 
fortable support.  Everybody  residing  in  the  town, 
except  those  belonging  to  the  Episcopal  Society,* 
belonged  by  law  to  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society, 
and  their  property  in  the  grand  list  was  subject  to 
taxation  for  its  support,  very  much  as  at  this  day 
persons  belong  to  the  School  District  in  which  they 
reside  and  their  property  is  subject  to  taxation  for 
school  purposes.  After  this  petition,  in  terms 
offensive  to  the  pride  of  Mr.  Noyes  and  his  friends, 
and  proposing  to  deprive  him  of  a  part  of  the 
dignity  and  importance  of  his  position,  and  the 
society  of  a  considerable  part  of  its  strength,  had 
been  discussed,  the  record  very  naturally  reads  that 
it  was  voted  to  do  nothing  about  it.  It  is  evident 
from  the  time  of  this  vote  for  a  period  of  seventeen 
years  there  was  trouble  in  the  First  Church  and 
Society.  The  petitioners  became  obstructionists. 
At  the  January  term  of  the  County  Court,  held 
the  fourth  Tuesday  of  January,  A.  D.,  1742,  they 
obtained  leave  to  worship  by  themselves  under  the 
law  known  as  the  Toleration  Act  of  William  and 
Mary,  by  which  means  they  were  exempted  from 
penalty  for  not  attending  the  legally  constituted 
church,  although  not  relieved  from  their  share  of  its 
support." 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  dissensions  in 
the  First  Church,  and  the  long  and  tortuous  steps 
which  were  taken  to  form  and  establish  the  seced- 

*  Apparently  there  was  no  Episcopal  Society  in  1741. 


—  IO — 

ing  part  of  the  congregation  as  an  independent 
church.  The  fact  is  interesting  that  nearly  seven- 
teen years  had  passed  before  the  final  completion 
of  the  legal  status  of  the  seceding  congregation  was 
established ;  but  what  I  have  said  seems  to  be  neces- 
sary to  our  story,  to  show  you  how  the  little  com- 
munity of  New  Haven  was  agitated  by  theological 
controversies  and  by  the  quarrels  of  parishoners 
with  their  pastors.  That  feature  in  the  life  of 
the  congregational  churches  of  Connecticut  was 
very  common.  We  read  of  dissensions,  difficul- 
ties, fault-findings,  at  Guilford,  at  Milford,  at 
Branford,  and  other  towns,  and  it  would  seem  as 
if  a  large  part  of  the  energy  of  the  people,  such  as 
it  was,  was  spent  in  the  self-imposed  task  of  try- 
ing to  regulate  the  opinions  and  the  public  life  of 
their  pastors.  Of  course  much  bad  feeling  was 
engendered,  the  effects  of  which  were  felt  for  a 
long  time. 

To  understand  still  better  the  peculiar  position  of 
New  Haven  in  the  period  referred  to,  the  attitude 
and  general  policy  of  the  college  deserve  rather 
extended  notice. 

Many  people,  considering  the  college  with  its 
impressive  vigor  and  abundant  life,  are  apt  to  over- 
look the  fact  that  it  had  but  small  beginnings.  It 
was  the  outcome  of  conferences  upon  the  needs  of 
the  colony  for  the  proper  education  and  training 


— II — 

of  young  men  for  the  sacred  ministry.  The  minis- 
ters, of  course,  took  the  lead  ;  it  was,  in  point  of 
fact,  their  own  creation.  The  people  were  poor, 
for  the  most  part,  and  it  was  felt  that  a  residence  at 
Cambridge  involved  expenditure  of  money  which 
they  could  ill  afford.  * 

It  is  needless  at  present,  and  would  be  entirely 
out  of  place,  to  recount  fully  the  steps  which 
resulted  in  the  organization  of  the  college  and  its 
final  establishment  at  New  Haven.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  supreme  aim  of  the  founders  was  to 
impart  theological  instruction,  and  the  subordinate 
aim  was  the  general  secular  training  such  as  a  col- 
lege might  be  expected  to  give.  The  ministers, 
both  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  had  no 
taste  for  humane  letters.  Their  entire  interest  was 
in  theology.  They  did  not  like  poetry ;  they 
did  not  like  works  of  fiction ;  they  did  not  like 
history  ;  they  did  not  care  for  scientific  pursuit,  but 
they  did  like  theology,  and  with  the  earnestness 
which  characterized  them,  they  devoted  them- 
selves assiduously  to  the  study  of  Hebrew,  of 
Greek,  and  of  course,  of  Latin.  The  taste  of  the 
ministers  was  theological,  and  not  literary,  as  I 
have  just  said.  The  fact  should  be  emphasized  ; 
for  it  accounts  for  much  in  the  public  and  social 
life  in  New  England.  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
in  his  recent  work  on  .Massachusetts,  has  pointed 


— 12 — 

out  with  acrid  astuteness  that  there  was  no  litera- 
ture and  there  was  no  taste  for  letters  in  Massa- 
chusetts during  the  whole  period  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  ministers,  and  that  no  book,  of  any  note,  in 
the  field  of  letters,  was  written  by  any  Massachu- 
setts maa$  with  the  exception  of  Cotton  Mather's 
"  Magnalia."  In  Connecticut,  no  purely  literary 
work  was  attempted  or  achieved.  The  people  were 
not  taught  to  love  literature,  and  as  long  as  the 
influence  of  the  ministers  lasted  unimpaired,  litera- 
ture was  unknown  to  the  people  who  had  the 
natural  intelligence  to  have  enjoyed  it.  The 
absence  of  taste  for  history  was  an  especial  char- 
acteristic of  the  ministers.  Had  they  known  his- 
tory they  might  have  had  different  ideas  about  the 
constitution  of  the  church,  but  as  it  was,  they 
formed  their  theory  of  it  from  the  abstract  study 
of  disjointed  texts  of  scripture.  And  yet,  all  honor 
to  the  ministers  who  brought  volumes  they  could 
ill  afford  to  give,  and  laid  them  on  a  table  as  their 
first  offerings  for  the  establishment  of  a  library  in 
the  new  college. 

Now  it  can  readily  be  seen  that,  inasmuch  as  the 
founders  of  the  college  were  congregational  minis- 
ters of  the  standing  order,  and  that  their  object  was 
supremely  to  prepare  students  for  the  ministry,  the 
theological  spirit  of  the  new  college,  and  the  aims 
and  the  policy  of  the  ministers  in  the  conduct  of  it, 


—13— 

were  likely  to  be  just  as  rigid  as  the  polity  of  the 
churches  in  the  colony.  "  They  were  grounded  in 
polemical  divinity  according  to  the  Assembly's 
Catechism  and  Dr.  Ames'  Medulla  and  Cases  of 
Conscience,"  and  special  care  was  taken  in  the 
education  of  the  students,  not  to  suffer  them  to  be 
instructed  in  different  principles  or  doctrines,  and 
all  "proper  measures"  were  taken  to  promote  the 
power  and  purity  of  religion  and  the  best  edification 
and  peace  of  the  churches. 

The  college  reflected  the  dominant  spirit  of  the 
religious  and  theological  temper  of  the  entire 
people.  It  was  regarded  with  great  pride.  It  was 
the  subject  of  many  prayers  and  of  much  thought, 
and  its  course  was  tranquil  until  the  year  1722, 
when,  to  the  consternation  of  the  whole  colony,  Dr. 
Cutler,  rector  of  the  college,  declared  for  episco- 
pacy. He  was  not  alone.  He  had  companions, 
friends,  fellow  students,  who  had  read,  talked  and 
conferred  with  him,  most  conspicuous  of  whom  was 
Mr.  Johnson,  then  of  West  Haven.  They  had  read 
themselves  into  a  belief  that  the  true  ministry  of 
the  church  of  Christ  was  not  such  a  ministry  as  the 
congregational  churches  possessed,  but  was  episco- 
pal, that  the  episcopal  type  of  the  ministry  was 
the  original  type,  and  was  binding  upon  the  prac- 
tice of  the  church  and  the  consciences  of  Christians 
for  all  time.  No  such  theological  or  ecclesiastical 


—  14— 

convulsion  had  ever  been  experienced  in  the  colony. 
Mr.  Cutler  was  promptly  dismissed  from  his  office, 
and  he  retired  from  New  Haven,  so  that  his  direct 
influence  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  episcopal 
church  in  Connecticut  were  not  considerable,  but 
Mr.  (subsequently,  Dr.)  Johnson  is  regarded,  justly, 
as  the  father  of  episcopacy  in  Connecticut. 

Dr.  Cutler  was  very  much  admired  for  his 
character  and  abilities,  and  found  a  warm  wel- 
come among  some  of  the  churchmen  of  Boston, 
whither  he  went  after  having  left  New  Haven.  I 
say  by  some  of  the  churchmen  of  Boston,  but  not 
by  all,  for  Dr.  Cutler,  having  "read  himself"  into 
the  episcopal  church,  adopted  what,  in  his  day, 
were  considered  high  church  principles,  and  the 
Hanoverian  Whig  clergy  of  Boston  had  but  little 
sympathy  with  him,  and  no  sympathy  with  his 
principles.* 

It  can  readily  be  understood  that  the  conversion 
of  these  gentlemen,  young  men  as  they  were,  to 
episcopacy,  while  it  created  a  panic  in  the  college 
and  in  the  colony,  did  but  tend  to  make  hostility 
more  bitter  and  the  polity  of  the  college  in  respect 
of  the  members  of  the  church  of  England,  more 
rigorous.  They  did  not  desire  the  presence  of 
students  who  were  members  of  the  church  of 
England. 

*Perry's  Massachusetts,  and  especially  a  letter  from  Mr.  Harris  to  the 
Bishop  of  London,  pp.  156-162. 


T    g 

Our  concern  at  present  is  not  with  the  college  in 
itself,  but  in  the  attitude  toward  the  church  in 
which  it  was  placed  by  the  authorities.  The  hos- 
tility was  pronounced  and  even  violent,  but,  as 
might  have  been  foreseen,  the  wisdom  and  spirit  of 
its  polity  began  to  be  questioned.  An  influential 
minority,  composed  of  churchmen  and  of  all  others 
who  disliked  the  theology  of  the  standing  order, 
began  to  talk  and  to  write  against  it.  Among  the 
dissidents  there  were  probably  some  free  thinkers 
and  deists :  in  fact  all  men  who  thought  that  they 
were  under  the  yoke  of  an  intolerable  tyranny  were 
ranked  in  the  opposition.  But  all  opposition  was 
powerless.  The  magistrates  and  the  churches  gave 
entire  support  to  the  college  and  endorsed  its 
opposition  to  the  church.  So  it  stood  with  the 
college  ;  so  it  stood  with  the  churches ;  so  it  stood 
with  the  people  of  influence  and  position  in  New 
Haven  in  the  year  1750.  True,  time  had  done 
something ;  gentler  memories  of  the  old  home 
might  have  softened  some  hearts ;  new  comers 
might  have  qualified  somewhat  the  general  bitter- 
ness, but  the  fathers  had  eaten  sour  grapes  and 
the  children's  teeth  were  set  on  edge. 

As  just  stated,  the  people  were  not  a  complete 
unit.  What  free  people  ever  are,  long  ?  The 
political  and  religious  dissidents,  no  doubt,  counted 
themselves  and  were  counted.  The  members  of  the 


—i  6— 

church  of  England  and  sympathizers  with  it,  were 
becoming  more  and  more  resolute,  and  were  think- 
ing, by  this  time,  of  building  a  house  of  worship,  of 
modest  dimensions,  suited  alike  to  their  numbers 
and  their  pecuniary  resources.  I  name  1 750  as  a 
sort  of  central  date  to  be  kept  in  mind,  and  my  sub- 
ject is  the  beginnings  of  the  episcopal  church  in 
New  Haven.  Dr.  Johnson  probably  was  the  first 
man  who  ever  read  the  service  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  in  New  Haven.  He  came  hither, 
occasionally,  between  1730  and  1740  from  Strat- 
ford and  officiated,  of  course,  in  a  private  house. 
He  cast  longing  eyes  upon  New  Haven,  for  he  was 
an  alumnus  of  the  college,  and  had  lived  over  in 
West  Haven,  and  was  very  much  attached  to  the 
place.  His  infrequent  ministrations  did  not  lead 
to  any  public  results,  but  in  the  year  1 736  the  Rev. 
Jonathan  Arnold,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  who 
conformed  to  the  church  in  1734,  was  in  London, 
whither  he  had  gone  for  his  ordination.  He  evi- 
dently had  made  himself  acquainted  with  some  of 
the  traditions  of  New  Haven  about  a  valuable  piece 
of  land  near  the  centre  of  the  town,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  bequeathed  by  Mr.  Gregson  to 
the  church.  He  also  had  evidently  studied  New 
Haven  county,  and  he  made  an  application  to  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts  for  an  appointment  as  a  missionary 


of  the  society.  His  letter  to  the  secretary  should 
be  quoted  in  full,  because,  as  a  result  of  it,  we  may 
say  that  then  the  first  serious  efforts  were  made  for 
the  establishment  of  the  church  in  New  Haven. 
His  letter  is  as  follows: 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  be  informed  that  my 
case  is  referred  to  your  compassionate  considera- 
tion, and  that  it  is  expected  that  I  make  a  reply  to 
the  two  following  questions,  namely  :  First,  what 
towns  there  are  adjacent  to  New  Haven  which  I 
should  be  willing  to  be  serviceable  to,  making  New 
Haven  the  place  of  my  residence ;  Second,  what 
reward  I  should  expect  from  the  Society  for  such 
service. 

"  In  answer  to  the  first  question  :  there  is  Mil- 
ford,  ten  miles  distant ;  Derby,  ten  miles  distant ; 
Waterbury,  twenty  miles  ;  Cheshire,  twenty  miles  ; 
Wallingford,  twelve  miles;  Guilford,  twenty  miles 
distant  from  New  Haven,  all  of  which  I  am  will- 
ing occasionally  to  visit  and  administer  to. 

"  In  answer  to  the  second  inquiry,  relating  to  my 
reward,  I  am  truly  willing  to  spend  and  to  be  spent  in 
the  Society's  service,  and  whatever  the  Society  shall 
bestow  will  be  thankfully  accepted  and  shall  be 
faithfully  used  for  the  good  ends  designed,  and  that 
God  may  enlarge  the  Society's  abilities  in  propor- 
tion to  their  desire  of  doing  good  is  the  sincere 
prayer  of,  Reverend  Gentlemen,  Your  most  obedi- 
ent servant." 

You  see  the  extent  of  the  field  he  proposed  to 
occupy.  He  evidently  knew  how  large  it  was.  The 
plan  was  to  make  New  Haven  the  centre  of  his 
operations.  He  received  the  appointment,  but 


without  salary.  He  was  a  man  of  some  means, 
though  not  large.  This  letter  was  written  in  Lon- 
don, and,  clearly,  the  plan  was  that  he  should  make 
New  Haven  the  place  of  his  residence ;  but  the 
next  letter  written  to  the  society  was  dated  at 
West  Haven,  which  leads  me  to  think  that  he  could 
not  find  a  home  in  New  Haven ;  in  fact,  that 
nobody  would  rent  him  a  house.  The  letter  is 
rather  interesting.  Under  date  of  the  22nd  of 
September,  1736,  he  writes: 

"  I  beg  leave  humbly  to  present  my  duty  to  the 
Honorable  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts,  and  also  an  account  of  my  proceed- 
ings and  success.  After  a  long  passage  and  tedious 
fit  of  sickness,  I  arrived  to  my  family  in  July  last, 
and  have,  in  the  best  manner  I  could,  attended 
divine  service  in  the  several  towns  to  which  I  am 
sent,  preaching  two  sermons  every  Sunday,  and 
frequent  lectures  at  other  times.  By  reason  of  the 
great  distance  of  the  towns  where  those  dwell  that 
are  under  my  care,  my  work  is  made  very  charge- 
able and  difficult,  but  withal  very  pleasant  from  the 
fair  prospect  of  success.  I  have  admitted  thirteen 
persons  to  the  communion,  and  the  number  of  com- 
municants are  fifty-six.  I  have  baptized  seven,  of 
which  five  were  infants,  two  adults,  one  of  which 
was  a  negro.  I  performed  divine  service  last  Sun- 
day in  Milford,  one  of  the  most  considerable  towns 
in  Connecticut  Colony,  where  the  use  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Creed  and  the  Ten  Commandments, 
and  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  divine  service, 
was  never  before  known.  There  was  a  very 
numerous  auditory,  most  attentive  and  desirous 


to  be  instructed  in  the  worship  of  the  Church  of 
England,  but  those  who  are  looking  towards  the 
Church  are  commonly  the  poorer  sort  of  people, 
for  the  staff  of  government  being  in  the  hands  of 
the  dissenters,  who  rule  the  church  with  an  iron 
rod,  those  who  receive  honor  one  of  another  set 
themselves  in  distance,  who  allow  their  rage  and 
revenge  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 
the  Church." 

Mr.  Arnold  frequently  makes  mention  of  his 
ministrations  in  the  towns  already  named,  but  is 
utterly  silent  about  New  Haven.  Whether  he 
preached  in  New  Haven,  or  how  often,  or  what  the 
extent  of  his  ministrations  was,  we  are  unable  to 
determine. 

He  was  an  active,  resolute  man,  who  repaid  the 
bitterness  with  which  he  was  regarded,  by  the  stand- 
ing order,  with  an  acerbity,  combined  with  a  vigor 
of  english,  which  must  have  made  him  an  object  of 
dislike  personally,  to  say  nothing  of  the  aversion 
with  which  his  mission  was  regarded.  Mr.  Arnold 
attempted  to  take  possession  of  the  land  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  by  sending  ser- 
vants to  plow  it  up,  but,  before  the  sun  went  down, 
his  men  were  driven  off  the  ground  by  a  great  mob, 
and  he  desisted  from  all  further  attempts  to  claim 
it.  A  copy  of  the  will  under  which  Mr.  Arnold 
acted  may  be  found  in  the  land  records  of  New 
Haven. 


— 2O — 

"The  six  Episcopal  clergymen  of  Connecticut," 
says  Dr.  Beardsley,  "and  Mr.  Wetmore  of  Rye— 
who  from  nearness  to  this  colony  and  sympathy 
with  them  always  cooperated  as  far  as  he  might 
with  Dr.  Johnson  and  his  associates  in  their  efforts 
to  advance  the  prosperity  of  trie  Church — sent 
home  to  the  Honorable  Society  a  statement  of  this 
resistance.  The  testimony  of  such  witnesses  is 
reliable,  and  proves  that  there  was  some  foundation 
in  equity  for  the  claim  under  the  deed  of  William 
Gregson."* 

This  is  about  all  I  know  of  Mr.  Arnold's  minis- 
try in  the  town  of  New  Haven — not  much, 
certainly.  He  evidently  was  a  restless  man,  a 
man  not  of  solid  judgment,  a  man  of  large  enter- 
prises which  he  was  unable  to  carry  out,  and  his 
mission  work  in  the  county  did  not  last  long. 

The  clergy  of  Connecticut  had  many  grievances. 
In  a  letter  dated  Boston,  December  i4th,  1738,  Mr. 
Arnold  again  addresses  the  secretary  of  the  S.  P. 
G.,  as  follows  : 

"The  government  in  Connecticut  under  which 
we  are,  having  taken  many  severe  measures  against 
the  church  tending  to  crush  and  demolish  it,  my 
brethren  were  desirous  that  I  should  come  home  to 
represent  our  grievances  and  seek  some  relief,  but 
being  disappointed,  would  beg  leave  to  lay  before 

*See  Croswell's  History  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  Historical 
Society  Papers,  vol.  i,  pp.  76-78,  and  Beardsley's  History,  vol.  i,  pp. 
169-170. 


— 21  — 


the  Honorable  Society  my  own  distressed  state, 
earnestly  requesting  their  compassionate  notice. 
My  difficulties  experienced  in  my  mission  is  equal 
if  not  superior  to  any  missionary's,  for  there  is  no 
clergyman  in  the  large  county  of  Hartford  nor  in 
New  Haven  but  myself,  and  I  am  frequently  called 
upon  and  do  officiate  in  several  towns  at  a  great 
distance,  namely,  Wallingford,  Wethersfield,  Sims- 
bury,  Farmington,  etc.,  besides  my  special  cure  is 
large  and  very  difficult,  being  much  scattered,  and 
though  much  oppressed  increases  greatly." 

The  concluding  paragraph  of  the  letter  enables  us, 
perhaps,  to  get  a  glimpse  of  Mr.  Arnold's  personal 
peculiarities,  for  if  he  were  the  owner  of  an  estate 
or  possessed  of  any  private  means,  as  he  undoubtedly 
was,  why  should  he  write  to  the  secretary  in  this 
way : 

"If  they  are  in  a  capacity  to  make  an  addition  to 
my  substance  I  shall  be  most  thankful  if  the  Society 
should  consider  my  low,  distressed  estate,  I  have  a 
wife  and  five  small  children,  and  the  cries  for  want 
of  bread  are  very  piercing.  I  have  been  forced  to 
sell  considerable  of  my  land,  and  shall  be  obliged 
to  sink  my  estate  if  relief  cannot  be  obtained." 

We  can  understand  thoroughly  that  Mr.  Arnold 
may  have  been  in  an  embarrassed  condition,  but  we 
cannot  understand  that  a  man  of  property  could 
possibly  have  heard  the  piercing  cries  of  his  own 
children  for  bread.  Still,  Mr.  Arnold  was  fairly 
successful  in  his  general  missionary  work,  and  he 
enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his  brethren,  as  the  fol- 


— 22 — 

lowing  extract  from  a  letter,  addressed  to  the 
secretary  by  Messrs.  Johnson,  Wetmore  and  Beach, 
will  show.  They  say  in  a  communication  dated 
New  Haven,  November  i6th,  1738: 

"  We  are  met  together  upon  the  particular  exi- 
gencies of  the  Church  in  this  colony,  and  have  put 
into  the  hands  of  our  Reverend  Brother,  Mr. 
Arnold,  our  address  to  the  Honorable  Society, 
setting  forth  the  grievances  of  the  Church,  and  such 
papers  as  relate  thereto,  but  having  therein  omitted 
the  mentioning  of  what  we  think  would  be  proper 
upon  this  occasion  in  behalf  of  our  Reverend  and 
worthy  Brother,  we  beg  leave  hereby  to  acquaint 
the  Honorable  Board;  that  since  his  being 
appointed  a  missionary  here  he  has,  with  a  great 
deal  of  labor  and  zeal,  served  the  interests  of  the 
Church,  and  with  good  success,  in  the  several  places 
of  his  itinerant  mission." 

Up  to  this  time  Mr.  Arnold  was  well  thought  of 
by  his  brethren  in  the  ministry,  though  they  say 
not  a  word  of  any  work  of  his  in  New  Haven 
itself.  But  Mr.  Arnold  became  so  eccentric  that 
the  suspicion  has  crossed  my  own  mind  that  he 
was  probably  unhinged.  The  project  which  they 
recommended  miscarried ;  Mr.  Arnold  did  not  go 
to  London.  He  left  Connecticut  and  removed  to 
New  York.  Dr.  Johnson  said  :  "Mr.  Arnold  has 
been  in  a  very  unsettled  disposition  of  late,  and  is 
now  about  moving  to  Staten  Island,  New  York, 
so  that  I  question  whether  he  will  go  home  at  all." 


—23- 

This  is  all  that  we  know  of  Mr.  Arnold  and  his 
work  in  New  Haven.  He  was  succeeded  by  the 
Rev.  Theophilus  Morris,  an  Englishman  by  birth, 
and,  presumably,  by  education.  His  first  report 
made  to  the  society,  was  dated  September  i3th, 
1740.  He  seems  to  have  made,  at  first,  an  agree- 
able impression,  because  the  people  of  West  Haven 
expressed  their  thanks  and  gratitude  to  the  honor- 
able society  for  "  sending  the  Rev.  Mr.  Morris  to 
succeed  Mr.  Arnold,  and  if  sincerity  and  zeal  for 
the  interests  of  the  established  Church  can  plead 
for  us,  that  worthy  clergyman  you  have  been 
pleased  to  send  us,  and  others  of  the  clergy  who 
know,  can  sufficiently  testify  for  us." 

Mr.  Morris  himself  seemed  pleased  with  his  field 
of  operation.  But  he  had  defects,  some  of  which 
made  him  ill-fitted  to  minister  to  the  people  of  New 
Haven,  and  others  which  made  him  unfit  to  minis- 
ter anywhere.  Apparently  he  neither  knew  nor 
cared  for  the  tastes  and  general  habit  of  mind  of  the 
people  of  Connecticut ;  at  the  same  time  he  did 
endeavor  to  present  the  church  in  a  favorable  light 
to  all  persons,  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
To  this  extent  his  manners  and  ministry  were  con- 
ciliatory. He  reported  that  the  poorer  people  felt 
that  it  was  against  their  worldly  interests  and 
prospects  to  conform  to  the  church.  Nothing 
of  special  interest  occurred  during  his  ministry, 
and  he  left  the  field  much  as  he  found  it. 


—24— 

Mr.  Morris  was,  unfortunately,  not  simply  a  gos- 
sip, but  an  informer.  He  complained  of  Mr. 
Arnold  in  the  following  manner,  in  a  letter  to  the 
secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  : 

"  I  should  further  inform  you  that  his  frequenting 
the  dissenters'  meeting  during  his  residence  in  this 
country  has  given  no  small  uneasiness.  He  is  not 
the  only  person  that  has  run  into  such  practices,  and 
give  me  leave  to  assure  you,  sir,  that  it  would  con- 
tribute to  the  welfare  of  the  Church  if  you  thought 
proper  to  restrain  such  liberties  in  clergymen." 

He  also  complained  that  Mr.  Arnold  had  refused 
to  let  him  have  the  Bible  and  Common  Prayer 
Book  for  the  use  of  his  people  in  the  mission. 
Not  content,  however,  with  complaining  against 
Mr.  Arnold,  he  undertook  to  lessen  the  respect  of 
the  society  for  Mr.  Johnson,  who  was  certainly,  at 
that  time,  the  most  influential  clergyman  of  our 
church  in  Connecticut.  Of  Johnson  he  com- 
plained, likewise,  that  he  had  gone  to  hear  dissenters 
and  disorderly  persons  preach,  and  he  made  such 
an  impression  upon  the  society  that  Johnson 
felt  himself  compelled  to  make  an  explanation. 
He  said  he  went  once,  with  two  or  three  of 
his  brethren  of  the  clergy,  one  night,  in  the  dark, 
and  perfectly  incognito,  among  a  vast  crowd, 
to  see  and  hear  the  management  and  ravings 
of  James  Davenport.  He  also  felt  called  upon  to 


—25— 

write  to  Mr.  Morris,  expostulating  with  him  for  his 
conduct,  and  said  to  him  : 

"  I  hope  your  conscience  is  now  entirely  easy, 
having  so  effectually  disburdened  it  at  the  Conven- 
tion, and  procured  a  chastisement  to  be  sent  to  me, 
which  I  have  received." 

Mr.  Morris  seems  to  have  entertained  a  strong 
dislike  of  Dr.  Johnson,  and  when  the  clergy  of 
Connecticut  sent  a  petition  to  the  society  that  Dr. 
Johnson  be  appointed  commissary,  Mr.  Morris 
was  the  only  clergyman  in  the  colony  who  refused 
to  join  with  his  brethren  in  the  application. 

But  Mr.  Morris  had  another  defect  of  character, 
I  judge,  because  Mr.  Price,  the  commissary  of  the 
Bishop  of  London,  wrote  from  Boston  to  the  sec- 
retary in  1 743  as  follows  : 

"  The  people  of  New  London  are  full  of  com- 
plaints against  Mr.  Morris,  and  charge  him  with 
being  frequently  disguised  with  strong  liquors.  If 
he  should  be  innocent  of  this  crime,  which  I  shall 
inquire  into,  yet  it  is  my  opinion  he  has  not  discre- 
tion enough  to  be  of  great  service  in  that  town, 
which  is  a  place  of  considerable  importance."* 

He  seems  to  have  been  in  bad  odor  both  in  Con- 
necticut and  Massachusetts.  This  is  all  that  need 
be  said  of  Mr.  Morris  ;  he  disappeared  henceforth. 

*Perry's  Massachusetts,  p.  374. 


—26— 

Then  came  the  Rev.  James  Lyons,  an  Irishman. 
If  Mr.  Morris  lacked  discretion  in  one  way,  Mr. 
Lyons  was  equally  deficient  in  another.  He  was  a 
man,  however,  of  a  better  type  than  Mr.  Morris. 
He  was  active,  industrious,  and  somewhat  energetic, 
and  in  a  letter  dated  New  Haven,  May  3oth,  1745, 
he  makes  a  statement  which  is  very  important,  as  it 
throws  light  upon  the  way  in  which  parishes  were 
organized  in  Connecticut.  Everyone  who  has 
examined  the  history  of  the  church  has  been  dis- 
turbed by  the  fact  that  information  respecting  the 
organization  of  parishes  is  so  scanty  and  the  records 
so  few.  The  fact  would  seem  to  be, — inasmuch  as 
what  I  am  about  to  mention  is  stated  as  if  it  were 
nothing  extraordinary, — that  the  missionaries  them- 
selves did  all  "  in  the  way  of  organization  "  that 
was  or  could  be  done,  and  I  suspect  this  is  the  key 
to  the  solution  of  the  whole  subject.  In  this  letter 
Mr.  Lyons  says  (May  3Oth,  1745)  : 

"  I  preached  thrice  at  Middletown,  and  appointed 
church  wardens  and  resolved  to  give  them  liberty 
to  read  prayers  and  sermons,  as  in  other  places." 

That  must  have  been  the  extent  of  organization 
in  many  of  our  parishes  which  are  now  parishes  of 
importance  and  influence.  Mr.  Lyons  further 
reports : 


—27— 

"  The  people  of  Derby  continue  divided  by  a 
national  spirit  which  prevails  and  is  industriously 
propagated  by  some  of  them  and  the  neighboring 
clergy.  However,  after  all  attempts  made  and 
unchristian  means  used  by  some  to  render  me  unac- 
ceptable by  hauling  me  once  and  again  before  an 
independent  justice  of  the  peace,  as  I  mentioned  in 
some  former  accounts,  yet  through  the  goodness  of 
God  my  innocency  and  integrity  protected  me,  and 
I  continue  irreprovable,  having  a  good  understand- 
ing with  the  most  of  my  extensive  mission." 

There  is  nothing  further  in  the  work  of  Mr. 
Lyons  which  requires  special  comment.  Not  a 
word  is  said  about  New  Haven  by  these  mission- 
aries. The  design  to  make  New  Haven  the  centre 
of  church  influence  proved  abortive.  The  adverse 
influences  were  too  strong.  The  character  and  the 
ability  of  the  missionaries  were  not  sufficiently  im- 
posing to  have  made  any  impression  upon  the  New 
Haven  public  at  large.  We  are,  however,  approach- 
ing a  time  when  the  church  assumed  somewhat 
more  the  character  of  a  distinct  parish.  Not  that 
I  am  able  to  tell  you  anything  in  the  way  of  a 
remarkable  change,  for  no  remarkable  change 
happened. 

Mr.  Lyons  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Ebenezer  Pun- 
derson,  and  Mr.  Punderson's  is  the  first  name  that 
suggests  itself  as  really  connected  with  this  parish. 
Ebenezer  Punderson  was  born  in  New  Haven  in 
the  year  1 705.  He  studied  theology  after  having 


—28— 

graduated  at  the  college,  and  was  called  to  be  the 
pastor  of  the  church  of  the  standing  order  which 
had  just  been  formed  in  the  north  parish  in  Groton, 
now  the  town  of  Ledyard.  He  had  not  been  many 
years  in  this  pastorship  before  he  "  astounded  his 
people  by  avowing  himself  a  conformist  to  the 
Church  of  England."  After  spending  several  years 
in  Groton,  he  was,  at  his  own  request,  transferred 
to  New  Haven.  Mr.  Punderson  seems  to  have 
removed  from  Groton  to  New  Haven  in  the  year 
1753.  The  episcopalians  had  mustered  courage, 
and  had  increased,  probably,  enough  to  have  begun 
actively,  in  the  year  1752,  the  project  of  building  a 
house  of  worship.  But  I  see  as  yet  no  traces  of 
parochial  organization,  for  Mr.  Samuel  Mix  (he 
must  have  been  a  man  of  great  courage),  in  July 
"  did  give,  grant,  bargain  and  sell  unto  Enos  Ailing 
and  Isaac  Doolittle,  for  the  building  of  a  house  of 
worship  agreeably  and  according  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Church  of  England,"  a  lot  situated  on  the 
east  side  of  Church  street,  south  of  Chapel.  You 
observe  that  the  gentlemen  above  named  have  no 
official  style  or  title,  and  considering  what  seems  to 
have  been  the  universal  custom  of  the  time,  the 
inference  is  that  the  so-called  organization  had  not 
been  made.  It  is  universally  conceded*  that  "the 
exact  time  of  the  organization  of  Trinity  Church 

*  Frederick  Croswell,  Dr.  Beardsley  and  others. 


—29— 

has  not  been  ascertained."     My  belief  is,  that  with 
the  advent  of  Mr.  Punderson,  about  the  time  of  the 
building  of  the  church,  he  appointed  wardens,  as 
Mr.   Lyons  had  done  in  Middletown,  and,  probably 
named  the  church,  as  he  named  the  North  Haven 
church,  some   years    later    on.     This    fact,    then, 
remains :  the    church    was  built,  certainly,  between 
July  1752  and  the  summer  of  1753.     Mr.  Punderson 
himself  contributed  much  of  the  timber,  while  the 
poverty  of  the  churchmen  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
I  am  about  to  narrate.     A  former  resident  of   this 
city,  now  nearly  ninety  years  of  age,  and  blessed 
with  an   extraordinary  memory,  in  a  letter  recently 
written  and  which  has  been  kindly  loaned,  says  that 
Trinity   Church    "  was   built    by    my   grandfather, 
Thomas  Davis.     Among  the  number  (I  presume 
he  means  either  of  church  members  or  of  contri- 
butors) were  Benjamin   Sanford  and  Enos  Ailing. 
The  names  of  the  others  I  do  not  know.     I  have 
heard   my   grandmother   tell  about    boarding   the 
workmen  for  a  week,  and  they  would  board  with 
others  in  turn,  so  that  every  eight  weeks   she  would 
have  to  board  them,  until  the  church  was  finished." 
They  were  probably  imported  workmen.     Possi- 
bly the  resident  mechanics  declined  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  new  church  which  they  had  been 
taught  to  hate  so  much.     But,  still,  we  have  here  a 
glimpse  into  the  homely  conditions  of  the  life  of 


—3o— 

the  people,  especially  of  the  poor  churchmen.  I 
know  no  more  of  the  contributors.  There  is  a 
tradition  that,  "  when  the  frame  of  the  building 
was  raised,  the  heads  of  all  the  episcopal  families 
then  in  New  Haven  sat  down  upon  the  door-sill 
and  spoke  hesitatingly  of  their  future  growth." 

The  church  was  a  small,  wooden  structure,  meas- 
uring 58  feet  by  38,  and  capable  of  seating  only  one 
hundred  and  fifty  persons.  It  was  very  insignificant 
when  compared  with  the  new  brick  church,  which 
measured  76  by  54,  or  even  with  the  blue  church, 
which  was  65  by  45.* 

The  opening  of  the  episcopal  church  in  New 
Haven  was,  perhaps,  both  the  cause  and  the  occa- 
sion of  a  new  and  violent  controversy  touching  the 
policy  of  the  college.  The  churchmen,  aided  by  a 
portion  of  the  minority  in  the  colony,  in  the  oppo- 
sition, demanded  certain  privileges  for  the  students 
belonging  to  the  church,  which  the  authorities  of 
the  college  were  unwilling  to  grant.  The  point  in 
dispute  was  far  more  serious,  however,  than  any 
question  which  might  have  arisen  between  a  small 
congregation,  on  the  one  side,  and  a  college  struggling 
into  a  position  of  influence  and  power  on  the  other. 
It  had  been  the  contention  of  the  majority,  as  I 
have  already  said  in  this  discourse,  that  Yale  College 
was  to  be  supremely  a  school  of  theological  learn- 

*These  are  the  figures  of  Dr.  Stiles  in  his  Itinerary. 


ing,  and  this  position  was  maintained  with  great 
tenacity  and  resisted  with  great  power.  It  was 
contended  by  the  minority  that  the  supreme* 
"  design  of  colleges  was  to  teach  the  arts  and  sciences 
only,  and  that  religion  was  no  part  of  a  college 
education,  and  therefore  that  no  religious  worship 
ought  to  be  upheld  or  enjoined  by  the  laws  of  the 
college,  and  that  every  student  should  be  allowed  to 
worship  how  and  where  he  pleased,  or  as  his  parents 
and  guardians  should  direct."  This  was  the  con- 
tention. They  who  made  the  issue  were,  of  course, 
ignominiously  beaten ;  but  the  discipline  of  Yale 
College  for  many  years  last  past,  in  respect  of  what 
was  called  the  design  of  colleges,  has  been  in  sub- 
stantial agreement  with  the  attitude  of  the  minority 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  For  the  attitude 
of  the  authorities  of  the  college  has  thoroughly 
changed.  The  spirit  of  the  college  has  been  com- 
pletely revolutionized.  It  has  developed  into  a  great 
university,  and  the  study  of  theology  is  confined  to 
but  one  department,  while,  undoubtedly,  it  is  under- 
stood that  it  is  the  "  design  of  colleges  to  teach  the 
arts  and  sciences  only."  The  beaten  minority  has 
had  its  revenge.  The  argument  was  simply  an 
anticipation  of  what  has  come  to  pass.  Realized 
predictions  suggest  more  insight  into  the  develop- 
ments of  history  than  a  view  of  things  shaped  by 

*Trumbull,  Vol.  II,  p.  320  et  seq. 


the  present  and  colored  only  by  the  memories  of 
the  past.  But  the  president,  Dr.  Clap,  was  no  less 
vigorous  than  the  opponents  of  the  college.  He 
showed,  and  he  showed  conclusively,  that  a  college 
was  entitled,  by  law  and  by  reason,  to  frame  its  own 
regulations  for  its  own  government ;  that  a  college 
could  not  exist  if  this  right  of  its  authorities  were 
withheld.  At  the  same  time,  the  president  found 
himself  in  a  position  of  some  difficulty,  when  it  was 
charged  that  larger  liberty  should  be  granted  to  the 
students  in  the  matter  of  attending  divine  worship, 
because  Governor  Yale  and  Bishop  Berkeley,  who 
were  churchmen,  made  large  donations  to  the 
college.  It  was  maintained  that  the  donations 
never  would  have  been  made  had  the  donors  fore- 
seen the  imposition  of  such  severe  restrictions  upon 
the  students  who  might  be  members  of  the  church 
of  England.  The  president  felt  the  force  of  the 
attack,  and  it  was  said  that  the  "corporation  had  a 
just  sense  of  the  generosity  of  those  gentlemen,  and 
for  that  and  for  many  other  reasons  were  willing  to 
do  all  they  could  to  gratify  the  gentlemen  of  the 
church  of  England  consistent  with  the  design  of 
the  founders,  and  particularly,  had  given  liberty  to 
those  students  who  had  been  educated  in  the 
church  of  England  and  were  of  that  communion, 
to  be  absent  at  those  times  when  the  sacrament  was 
administered  in  that  church,  upon  Christmas  and 


-5  *y 

JO 

some  such  other  times  as  would  not  be  an  infrac- 
tion of  the  general  and  standing  rule  of  the  col- 
lege." The  argument  of  the  president  was  thought 
to  be  satisfactory,  and  at  the  time  no  further  con- 
cessions were  made  to  the  church  people  who  were 
so  clamorous  for  freedom.  But  the  english-speak- 
ing  world  did  not  then  understand  the  principles  of 
religious  freedom  as  applied  either  to  educational 
institutions  or  to  public  worship.  You  will  per- 
ceive, then,  how  the  case  stands.  The  disaffected 
minority  was  arguing  for  an  education  and  for  a 
freedom,  in  the  matter  of  the  worship  of  the  stu- 
dents, entirely  in  advance  of  their  own  time.  The 
dissatisfied  minority  is  always  the  party  pleading 
for  freedom,  whether  in  the  church  or  in  the  state. 
The  governing  majority  naturally  does  not  criticise 
its  own  conclusions  nor  demand  reformation  and 
revolution.  • 

The  attitude  of  the  college  caused  Dr.  Johnson 
to  address  President  Clap  a  very  impassioned  letter. 
It  was  written  in  February,  1 754,  and  in  the  course 
of  it  he  writes  as  follows  : 

"  The  only  point  in  question,  as  I  humbly  con- 
ceive, is  whether  there  ought  of  right  to  be  any 
such  law  in  your  college  as  either  in  words  or  by 
necessary  consequence  forbids  the  liberty  we  con- 
tend for.  What  we  must  beg  leave  to  insist  on  is, 
that  there  ought  not,  and  that  it  is  highly  injurious 
to  forbid  it,  unless  you  can  make  it  appear  that  you 


—34— 

ever  had  a  right  to  exclude  the  people  of  the 
Church  belonging  to  this  colony  from  having  the 
benefit  of  public  education  in  your  college  without 
their  submitting  to  the  hard  condition  of  not  being 
allowed  to  do  what  they  believe  in  their  conscience 
it  is  their  indispensable  duty  to  do — i.  e.,  to  require 
their  children  to  go  to  Church  whenever  they  have 
opportunity — and  a  right  to  accept  and  hold  such 
vast  benefactions  from  gentlemen  of  the  Church  of 
England  wherewith  to  support  you  maintaining 
such  a  law  in  exclusion  of  such  a  liberty.  Can  you 
think  these  gentlemen  would  ever  have  given  such 
benefactions  for  such  a  purpose  ?" 

This  is  the  substance  of  Dr.  Johnson's  warm  and 
impassioned  plea.  He  was  right  in  theory,  right  in 
principle,  but  mistaken  as  to  what  was  the  common 
sentiment  and  practice  of  the  english-speaking 
race.  They  did  not  even  then  understand  religious 
liberty.  This  is  the  point  to  be  remembered  in  the 
history  of  this  debate.  We  can  scarcely  blame  Presi- 
dent Clap  for  not  being  above  the  level  of  his  race, 
and  time  and  surroundings,  and  Dr.  Johnson  himself, 
right  as  he  was  in  his  plea,  probably  did  not  know 
(for  the  reporter  was  not  then  abroad  in  the  land) 
that,  just  about  six  months  before  the  composition 
of  this  letter,  a  remarkable  boy  named  Edward  Gib- 
bon had  been  expelled  from  the  University  of 
Oxford  because  he  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic. 
So  it  may  be  said,  not  in  the  way  of  compromise, 
but  of  fact,  that  both  sides  in  the  controversy  had  a 


—35— 

certain  measure  of  right.  What  was  right  and  true 
has  become  triumphant ;  what  was  mistaken  and 
false  has  been  buried  out  of  sight. 

But  to  come  back  to  the  church.  Though  the 
churchmen  had  at  last  seen  their  hopes  realized,  and 
they  could  worship  in  the  house  of  God  according 
to  their  cherished  and  inextinguishable  convictions, 
the  congregation  did  not  increase  in  any  way  to 
stimulate  the  hopes  or  to  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  people.  In  fact,  our  story  is  still  somewhat 
melancholy.  While  churchmen  were  brave,  per- 
sistent, determined  and  vigilant,  New  Haven  still 
remained  obdurate,  it  still  looked  upon  the  church 
with  angry  eyes.  In  the  year  1760  (I  am  again 
indebted  to  Dr.  Stiles'  Itinerary)  *  it  appears  that  the 
whole  number  of  members  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land in  New  Haven  was  less  than  a  hundred.  No 
church  record  preserves  their  names,  but  I  have  found 
them  in  Stiles,  and  will  read  them  :  Enos  Ailing,  i  ; 
Stephen  Ailing,  3  ;  Stephen  Mansfield,  5  ;  Timothy 
Bonticu,  6  ;  Timothy  Bonticu,  Jr.,  5  ;  Isaac  Doo- 
little,  7  ;  Benjamin  Mugford,  i  ;  William  Punchard, 
4;  John  Danielson,  2;  Thomas  Davis,  4  ;  Benja- 
min Sanford,  5  ;  John  Leak,  5 ;  Daniel  Russell,  7  ; 
William  Cable,  3  ;  Timothy  Ford,  i  ;  Joshua  May, 
3  ;  Nicholas  Leckmore,  6 ;  Stephen  Bradley,  5  ; 
Mathers  Noble,  2  ;  Thomas  Dodd,  5  ;  James  Wood- 

*  I  am  indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  Prof.  Dexter  for  the  opportunity 
of  examining  this  unprinted  and  valuable  diary. 


-36- 

house,  2  ;  Jonathan  Miles,  7 ;  Mrs.  Greenough,  2  ; 
John  Read,  2.  These  numbers  denote  the  size  of 
the  families.  The  whole  population,  including  200 
students,  was  about  1500.  The  people  were  dis- 
heartened. Dr.  Johnson,  whose  heart  had  been  in 
New  Haven  so  long,  spoke  out  of  the  fullness  of  it 
in  a  letter  to  Archbishop  Seeker  : 

"  Mr.  Punderson,"  said  he,  "  seems  a  very  honest 
and  laborious  man,  yet  the  Church  at  New  Haven 
appears  uneasy  and  rather  declining  under  his  min- 
istry ;  occasioned,  I  believe,  partly  by  his  want  of 
politeness  and  partly  by  his  being  absent  so  much, 
having  five  or  six  places  under  his  care.  I  wish  he 
was  again  in  Groton,  and  some  politer  person  in 
his  place  and  another  at  Guilford  and  Branford." 

It  may  be  said  in  all  truth  that  the  flame  of 
episcopacy  in  New  Haven  was  but  feeble  and 
flickering.  Yet  the  adverse  winds  from  the  college 
and  from  the  church  did  not  put  it  out.  Mr.  Pun- 
derson was  a  good  and  generous  man,  thoroughly 
conscientious,  but  he  became  embroiled  in  quarrels 
with  his  neighbors,  and  the  congregation  diminished. 
People  whom  he  could  ill  afford  to  lose  dropped 
away  ;  his  life  was  embittered,  and  his  residence 
in  New  Haven  must  have  become  very  disagree- 
able. He  seems,  however,  to  have  kept  a  stout 
heart,  and  in  the  year  1 762  writes  to  the  secretary 
of  the  society  as  follows : 


—37— 

"  Ever  since  I  have  been  in  this  mission,  which  is 
eight  years  and  a  half,  I  have  to  the  utmost  of  my 
power  been  endeavoring  to  promote  the  religion  of 
our  ascended  Redeemer  as  professed  by  our  mo§t 
excellent  Church,  and  blessed  be  God,  my  labors  have 
been  attended  with  uncommon  success,  notwith- 
standing the  continual  endeavors  of  the  numerous 
and  powerful  as  well  as  subtle  adversaries  of  our 
Church  to  disquiet  my  life  and  render  my  endeav- 
ors abortive." 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  what  he  meant  by 
claiming  that  his  ministry  was  attended  with  uncom- 
mon success.  I  presume  he  must  have  referred  to 
his  work  elsewhere  in  the  neighboring  towns,  for 
he  says : 

"  I  am  eased  of  North  Haven,  a  Church  almost 
entirely  of  my  raising  up,  and  which  I  preached  in 
the  Sunday  after  Christmas,  and  dedicated  to  St. 
John,  as  it  was  his  day.  Had  upwards  of  twenty 
communicants,  although  excessive  cold,  21  degrees 
in  extreme  (sic)."  (March  1762). 

At  the  end  of  the  year  he  received  an  invitation 
from  the  church  at  Rye,  which  he  gladly  accepted, 
though  his  removal  was  attended  with  complica- 
tions, because  the  society  at  home,  without  having 
been  informed  of  the  action  of  the  vestry  at  Rye, 
had  appointed  Mr.  Palmer  to  the  mission.  The 
consequence  was  that  there  were  two  claimants  for 
the  same  place.  But  the  difficulty  was  speedily  and 
amicably  adjusted.  Mr.  Punderson  remained  at 


-38- 

Rye  until  the  close  of  his  life,  where  his  ministry 
was  very  successful,  and  Mr.  Palmer  was  trans- 
ferred to  New  Haven,  and  entered  upon  his  duties 
immediately,  with  great  industry,  vigor  and 
enthusiasm.  Mr.  Punderson's  memory  should 
be  cherished  with  great  respect,  for  he  did  his 
life  work  with  fidelity  and  generosity,  and  bore 
up  manfully  under  the  disappointments  of  his 
ministry  here,  especially  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  time. 

The  episcopalians  had  been  attempting  a  relig- 
ious census  of  the  colony,  and  Dr.  Stiles  had 
become  cognizant  of  it,  and  with  his  usual  endeavor 
to  find  out  everything  about  everybody,  writes, 
May  8th,  1760  : 

"  The  total  of  Episcopalians  in  New  England  in 
1 760  does  not  exceed  thirty  common  Presbyterian 
meetings,  the  work  of  forty  years,  since  the  Society 
(S.  P.  G.)  directly  attempted  the  proselyting  of 
our  Churches.  .  .  .  Since  that  time  (namely, 
1748)  they  (the  Society)  have  been  exhausted,  and 
probably  their  annual  contributions  are  at  their 
akme  and  will  never  much  exceed  the  demand  of 
the  present  missions,  and  there  are  but  three  of 
these  who  will  in  many  years  be  able  to  support 
themselves,  ...  so  that  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
more  will  exceed  the  number  they  will  ever  be  able 
to  support  at  a  time.  The  creating  new  missions 
has  evidently  been  clogged  ever  since  the  year 
1 742.  And  perhaps  in  the  last  20  years  there  have 
not  been  10  new  missions  created.  It  is  therefore 


—39— 

most  probable  that  in  the  20  years  next  to  come 
they  cannot  create  10  new  ones  or  increase  the 
number  of  clergy  to  40,  except  by  proselyting, 
And  as  the  great  motive  of  relaxation  from  minis- 
terial taxes  already  begins  to  cease,  or  rather  has 
ceased,  there  remains  the  only  way  for  numerous 
additions,  viz.,  by  continuing  to  open  the  arms  of 
the  Church  to  malcontents  of  our  communion,  and 
debauching  of  some  few  that  are  carried  away  by 
the  struggle  of  party.  But  our  Churches  are  in  the 
progress  of  a  most  rapid  increase,  and  do  now  make 
annually  four  new  parishes  to  one  new  reading 
house  of  Episcopalians,  and  will  increase  beyond 
this.  ...  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  the 
era  of  swift  increase  of  the  Church  of  England  is 
now  elapsed  ;  that  for  the  future  the  increase  will 
decline  :  while  our  Churches  continue  in  steady  but 
most  rapid  increase  of  doubling  once  in  30  years, 
which  must  constantly  diminish  the  proportion  of 
the  Church  to  the  Congregationalists.  For  it  is 
probable  30  years  hence  the  Church  will  not  have 
above  40  missions  and  at  most  five  other  congrega- 
tions that  support  themselves  ;  at  which  time  by  the 
blessing  of  Providence  our  churches  will  have 
increased  to  1000." 

And  to  Dr.  Chauncy,  in  July,  1761,  he  used  this 
language  : 

"The  Episcopalians  compute  2000  families  in 
Connecticut.  There  are  but  30  places  of  public 
worship  now.  And  from  the  largest  allowances  I 
cannot  make  but  about  1 240  families  in  Connecti- 
cut, nor  indeed  do  I  think  there  are  so  many  by 
200.  .  However,  I  do  not  know  but  it  might  have 
been  as  well  to  allow  2500  instead  of  2100  for  all 
New  England.  .  .  .  However,  I  believe  the 


—40— 

Episcopalians  do  not  in  truth  exceed  2000  families, 
yet  I  would  willingly  give  them  large  allowance,  as 
there  will  be  enough  left  for  us  for  a  basis  of  as 
large  an  increased  body  a  century  hence  as  we  can 
wish.  I  mean  to  keep  ourselves  in  countenance  so 
far  as  numbers  ought  to  do  it,  which  I  regard  of  no 
great  moment  indeed  besides  barely  the  security  of 
liberty." 

But  prophesy  evidently  was  not  one  of  the  gifts  of 
Dr.  Stiles.  To  be  sure,  as  we  have  seen,  the  church 
in  New  Haven  was  in  a  most  depressed  condition, 
but  many  of  our  congregations  elsewhere  through- 
out the  colony  were  flourishing.  Dr.  Stiles  might 
have  found  some  consolation  and  some  ground  for 
his  hope  that  the  church  had  seen  its  best  days 
already  in  New  England  from  the  state  of  things  in 
New  Haven,  but  the  church  in  New  Haven  had 
then  touched  its  lowest  point  of  depression.  The 
Rev.  Solomon  Palmer,  who,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  succeeded  Mr.  Punderson,  appears  at  once  to 
have  been  successful  in  his  ministry.  They  who 
had  dropped  off  from  the  congregation  found  their 
way  back,  and  while  nothing  of  special  interest  may 
have  occurred  during  Mr.  Palmer's  day,  he  never- 
theless left  New  Haven  in  the  year  1766,  having 
complained  "  that  he  could  not  support  his  large 
family  in  the  expensive  town  of  New  Haven  on  his 
salary."  He  removed  to  Litchfield  late  in  1766, 
and  after  a  ministry  of  some  five  years  there  he 


—41— 

died,  mourned  and  respected  by  the  churchmen  of 
the  colony. 

The  church  for  many  years,  as  we  have  seen,  ate 
the  bread  of  adversity  and  drank  the  waters  of 
affliction.  The  persecuting  spirit  was  still  violent ; 
the  church  was  spoken  of  in  a  way,  partly  con- 
temptuous and  partly  bitter,  but  notwithstanding 
all  opposition,  it  was  progressing  and  strengthen- 
ing. For  what  did  it  stand  in  those  days  ?  It 
stood  for  toleration,  for  latitude,  for  comprehen- 
siveness. It  stood  for  what  we  of  this  day  prize  so 
much — the  old  order  and  the  free  spirit. 

We  have  seen  that  the  people  were  composed 
chiefly  of  the  poorer  class.  They  were  men  neither 
of  influence,  nor  of  distinction.  I  have  named  no 
one  who  was  conspicuous  here  for  genius  or  for 
learning.  But,  of  the  small  number  of  churchmen, 
one  person  stands  out  to  my  mind  with  preeminent 
interest.  Mr.  Enos  Ailing,  a  native  of  New  Haven 
and  a  graduate  of  the  college,  of  the  class  of  1746, 
became  a  churchman,  and  having  once  resolved 
upon  his  allegiance  to  the  church,  he  defended  it 
at  all  times,  and  in  all  places,  with  vigor,  with 
dignity,  and  with  a  sweetness  hitherto  unknown  to 
the  people  of  New  Haven.  He  is  described  by  the 
Rev.  Solomon  Palmer  as  truly  catholic  in  his  tem- 
per ;  as  having  been  the  greatest  benefactor  to  this 
church  in  New  Haven,  and  would,  he  proceeds, 


—42— 

"  I  doubt  not,  do  all  he  could  for  the  interests  of 
the  Society  and  the  furtherance  of  their  pious  and 
charitable  designs."  He  had  the  sagacity  to  secure 
for  the  church  its  dower.  To  him  more  than  to 
any  other  man  connected  with  the  history  of  this 
parish  from  its  beginning,  is  Trinity  Church  to-day 
indebted  for  its  material  resources.  The  history  of 
the  legal  process  by  which  he  secured  the  property 
to  Trinity  parish  has  been  printed  more  than  once, 
and  is  of  easy  access.  I  shall  not,  therefore,  occupy 
your  attention  with  a  repetition  of  it.  It  is  enough 
for  us  to  do  honor  to-day  to  the  name  of  Enos 
Ailing.  The  parish  has  treated  his  memory  with 
indifference.  His  name  is  unknown  to  a  large 
majority  of  our  people,  but  it  is  impossible  to  read 
the  history  of  our  parish  without  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  extraordinary  value  of  his  life, 
his  example,  and  his  services.  He  lies  buried  in  a 
plot,  belonging  to  the  parish,  in  the  old  cemetery. 
Throw  a  flower  upon  his  grave.  I  have  said  that 
he  had  more  sweetness  of  disposition  than  was  com- 
mon in  his  day  and  generation,  and  I  will  conclude 
my  notice  of  him  by  reading  a  letter  he  wrote 
to  the  society  in  behalf  of  the  missionary,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Palmer,  and  of  the  neighboring  mis- 
sions in  the  county.  The  letter  is  dated  New 
Haven,  December  i6th,  1765. 


—43— 

"  By  seeing  my  name  in  the  list  of  the  members 
of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts,  in  their  last  abstract,  I  have  learned 
my  election  as  a  member  of  that  Honorable  Cor- 
poration, and  therefore  take  this  earliest  opportunity 
to  acknowledge  the  honor  they  have  therein  done 
me,  and  assure  them  I  will  do  everything  in  my 
power  to  further  their  pious  designs  ;  and  as  a  speci- 
men of  which,  will  pay  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Palmer  the 
sum  of  ten  pounds  sterling,  as  part  of  his  annual 
salary  from  the  venerable  Society,  as  soon  as  they 
shall  give  him  orders  to  receive  it. 

"  Mr.  Palmer  complains  that  his  income  is  not 
equal  to  his  family  and  incidental  charges,  and  that 
as  he  has  already  spent  a  considerable  part  of  his 
little  estate  he  must  soon  spend  the  whole,  and  have 
nothing  left  for  his  children  unless  he  should  be 
speedily  helped. 

"  As  his  family  is  large  and  his  occasional 
expenses  great,  I  believe  his  complaint  is  just,  and  I 
heartily  wish,  as  by  reason  of  the  great  expense  we 
have  lately  been  at,  in  finishing  our  church,  pur- 
chasing a  small  glebe  and  building  a  house  upon  it, 
we  have  rendered  ourselves  unable,  the  Society 
would  in  pursuance  of  their  charitable  purposes 
help  him.  A  gratuity  of  £20  sterling  he  thinks 
would  be  sufficient  to  supply  his  present  necessities 
and  carry  him  along  until  we  shall  have  paid  our 
present  public  debts,  and  be  able  better  to  provide 
for  him ;  which  if  not  granted  he  imagines  he  shall 
be  obliged  so  far  to  involve  himself  in  debt  as  he 
shall  never  be  able  to  pay,  and  thus  by  wronging 
his  creditors,  fall  under  disgrace,  which,  as  at  the 
same  time,  it  would  greatly  hurt  his  influence  and 
reflect  dishonor  upon  the  Church,  affords  him  but  a 
melancholy  prospect. 

"  Mr.  Palmer  by  his  private  conversation  which 
has  been  agreeable  to  his  character,  and  by  his 


—44— 

public  administrations  which  have  been  to  the 
acceptance  and  satisfaction  of  his  responsive  con- 
gregation, has  rendered  himself  worthy  of  the 
Society's  past  favors.  Under  him  this  Church  has 
flourished  and  grown  into  such  repute  that  numbers 
of  dissenters  frequently  come  to  it,  and  join  with 
us  in  our  way  of  worship,  and  with  respect  to  our 
missionaries  in  general  in  Connecticut,  I  should  not 
do  them  justice  if  I  did  not  recommend  them  as  a 
truly  venerable,  respectable  and  learned  body  of 
men,  faithfully  discharging  the  duties  of  their  mis- 
sion, whose  ministrations  have  been  blessed  to  the 
great  increase  of  the  Church,  and  promotion  of  true 
religion,  peace  and  good  order." 

Later  on,  after  Mr.  Hubbard  had  been  transferred 
to  New  Haven,  Mr.  Ailing  wrote  again  in  the 
following  terms : 

"  I  beg  leave,  moreover,  to  acquaint  you  that  the 
situation  of  this  mission,  it  being  in  a  capital  town, 
and  what  with  the  college,  the  General  Assembly 
and  the  courts,  which  brings  in  many  people  and 
unavoidably  renders  the  place  very  expensive  to  our 
clergyman,  I  might  add  that  an  annual  Convention 
[which  though  a  mere  voluntary  assemblage  was  the 
rudimentary  germ  of  our  present  conventions], 
of  the  clergy  is  held  here  every  Commencement ; 
that  what  with  this  expense  and  furnishing  a  bed 
for  travelling  clergymen  ;  I  believe  it  cannot  be  a 
less  expense  to  him  than  fifteen  or  twenty  pounds 
sterling  per  annum. 

"  The  Church  people  are  willing  to  do  everything 
in  their  power  to  give  a  decent  support  to  their 
minister  and  to  enable  him  to  appear  in  character, 
but  we  are  much  smaller  in  number  than  our  dis- 


—45— 

senting  brethren,  but  what  we  give  Mr.  Hubbard 
in  New  Haven  is  thirty  pounds  sterling,  together 
with  a  decent  house  and  garden.  This  with  the 
forty  pounds  sterling  from  the  Society,  which  1 
hope  we  receive  with  gratitude,  makes  but  a  small 
support  to  a  minister  in  this  large  town,  and  would 
the  Society  in  their  great  goodness  but  add  the  ten 
pounds  which  they  have  been  pleased  to  take  off 
from  this  mission,  it  would  be  a  very  seasonable 
relief  to  our  minister  in  his  needy  circumstances, 
and  would  be  very  thankfully  received.  Could  the 
Society  be  prevailed  on  to  do  this,  I  would  with 
their  approbation  cheerfully  pay  two  guineas  a  year 
to  him  from  the  date  of  his  letter  which  was  some 
time  in  April  last. 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  see  the  Church  daily 
increasing  by  the  prudent  and  discreet  behavior  of 
Mr.  Hubbard,  who  is  very  well  esteemed  not  only 
by  our  own  people,  but  by  those  of  the  dissenters 
among  us." 

Mr.  Bela  Hubbard  was  appointed  in  the  year 
1767,  and  at  once  secured  the  esteem  and  respect 
of  the  people. 

The  ship  is  now  over  the  bar,  and  the  first  chap- 
ter of  the  history  of  the  church  in  New  Haven  is 
ended. 

I  must  add  a  few  words  in  conclusion.  This  is 
the  season  of  peace  and  good  will.*  It  is  a  matter 
of  great  joy  to  think  that  the  old  bitter  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  passions  are  buried  and  gone.  We 
are  living  in  a  better  day.  There  is  a  more  gener- 

*  Sunday  after  Christmas. 


-46- 

ous  conception  of  Christianity  and  of  human  duties 
of  service  and  charity.  No  reasonable  man  living  a 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ago  could  have  supposed 
that  before  the  closing  of  this  century  the  little  con- 
gregation of  episcopalians  would  worship  in  a 
church  like  ours,  standing  upon  the  public  green, 
and  that  our  relations  with  the  older  ecclesiastical 
societies  would  become,  as  they  have  become, 
friendly,  cordial  and  fraternal.  No  reasonable  man 
could  then  have  supposed  that  the  college  would 
expand  into  a  great  university  and  that  one  of  its 
departments  would  bear  the  name  of  a  member  of 
this  congregation,*  and  that  a  building  would  stand 
on  the  campus — a  building  which  is  the  glory  of 
collegiate  architecture  on  this  continent — would 
bear  the  name  of  another  member  of  our  church.f 
What  a  revolution  has  come.  We  are  nearer  the 
reunion  of  Christendom.  Humanity  is  acquiring 
a  finer  texture.  There  is  ground  for  hope  that 
efforts  for  God  and  man  will  continue  to  move 
on  a  nobler  level.  Let  us  then  with  thankful  hearts 
sing,  We  praise  thee  O  God :  We  acknowledge 
Thee  to  be  the  Lord. 


*The  late  Joseph  E.  Sheffield,  Esq. 

f  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 


